A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. V, Part 6

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 644

USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. V > Part 6

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CHARLES H. COFER. Since he did his pioueering work on a homestead after the opening of the Cherokee Strip more than twenty years ago, Charles H. Cofer has been identified with numerous business enterprises in Western Oklahoma, and particularly in Dewey County, and is now best known as president of the Citizens State Bank of Vici.

Though he came to Oklahoma from Missouri, Mr. Cofer was born at Salem, Forsythe County, North Caro- lina, February 17, 1869, and the Cofer family were in the Carolinas from almost the earliest period of scttle- ment. His father, James Hamilton Cofer, was born in North Carolina in 1830 and died near Conway, Mis- souri, in 1882. Most of his life was spent in Forsythe County, North Carolina, where he was reared and edu- cated and married, and where he followed farming and stock raising. During the war between the states he served the Confederate cause in a factory for the making of army wagons. In 1876 he removed to Laclede County, Missouri, and lived on a farm near Conway the rest of his life. James H. Cofer married Mary Brown, who was born in Virginia in 1843 and died near Conway, Missouri, in 1881. Their large family of children are briefly noted as follows: William, a rancher in Texas; James Lewis, instructor in a high school at St. Louis; Charles H .; Sallie, wife of W. E. Ernest, a farmer and stock raiser near Fairview, Oklahoma; Vic, who first married Ned Day, a farmer, who died in Niangua, Missouri, and she married for her second husband Mr. Dougherty, a piano dealer, also deceased, her home being now in Houston, Texas; Mellie, who is a dressmaker living in the State of Washington; Nettie, wife of Robert Jamis- son, a farmer and stock raiser at Conway, Missouri; Effie, who is married and lives on a farm near Buffalo, Missouri; Alice, wife of H. O. Miller, a merchant in the State of Washington.

Charles H. Cofer was about seven years of age when the family removed to Northeastern Missouri, and he was reared on a farm and gained his early education in the common schools of Laclede County. In 1890 he completed a course in the business college at Springfield, Missouri, and for about a year was employed in a store

at Conway. 'With the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893 he removed to Richmond, Woodward County, secured a claim of 160 acres three-quarters of a mile south of Richmond, and spent several years in' developing and proving up on that tract of land which he still owns. Since then his interests have taken a much broader scope and he has become one of the most successful business men of Dewey County. He also owns 120 acres 31% miles south of Mutual, and has an attractive residence at Vici.

After making his home on his homestead until 1898 Mr. Cofer went to Hobart, was a merchant there a year and a half, and then engaged in the drug and general merchandise business at Cestos, in Dewey County, until 1910. In that year he organized the Citizens State Bank at Cestos, became its president, but in 1911 moved the bank to Vici, where it has since been the Citizens State Bank of Vici. He is the president, and the other officers are: David Jones, vice president; W. F. Cuberly, cashier; V. Cuberly, assistant cashier. The capital stock is $10,000, and since its removal to Vici the bank has occupied a home of its own at the corner of Broadway and Main Street.

Mr. Cofer has taken much interest in fraternal organizations. He is past chancellor commander of Cestos Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and now has membership in the lodge at Vici; belongs to the Vici Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Cestos Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, and is a member of the Oklahoma Bankers' 'Association. In politics he is a democrat, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at the present time is serving on the Vici School Board.

At Woodward, Oklahoma, in 1905, he married Miss Sallie E. Hayes, daughter of W. H. Hayes, who owns half a section of land near Woodworth. Mr. and Mrs. Cofer are the parents of five children: Thelma, Lewis and Lola, all of them attending the public schools at Vici; and Charles and Imogene.

CHARLES A. WELCH is the present county attorney of Pushmataha County, and in point of continuous practice is one of the oldest lawyers in this section of Oklahoma, having begun practice in the Choctaw Nation about fif- teen years ago. His home is at Antlers.

Before the dissolution of tribal government, the seat of the District Court of the First Judicial District of the Choctaw Nation was Red Oak. The facts of its his- tory are fully as interesting as those connected with Alikchi, seat of the Third Judicial District of the nation, though the southern part of the nation boasts of more romance and enlivening legend than does the region sur- rounding Red Oak. Red Oak was in Gaines County and the seat of district government for several counties. Over the court there presided at one time Noel J. Holson and James Culberson was his clerk.

It was during the Holson administration that Charles A. Welch, who had been born and partly reared in the Chickasaw country, was appointed attorney for the First Judicial District by Principal Chief Gilbert W. Dukes. The appointment was made shortly after Mr. Welch had been admitted to the bar in 1901, before United States Judge H. H. Clayton of the Central District of Indian Territory. During the two years of his service in this office Mr. Welch prosecuted many cases involving misde- meanors and minor crimes and was instrumental in a number of Indians being punished at the whipping tree. At Red Oak the punishment was inflicted beside a tree rather than at the post, and the tree remains yet on the spot bearing evidences of the fulfilling of the law's demands.

Cawrech

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

The era of many murders in the Indian country had passed at that time and Mr. Welch was not called upon to prosecute any men charged with that crime. But the era in which many white men were accused of murder had not passed, and what Mr. Welch missed in that line as a prosecutor he found abundant later as a private at- torney. Between the years 1907 and 1914 he successfully defended seventeen men in LeFlore and Pushmataha counties charged with the crime of murder. Then, in 1914, having been elected prosecuting attorney of Push- mataha County, he reverted to the tactics of his early ex- perience in the law and took up the business of punish- ing men accused of breaking the law.

Born in old Indian Territory in 1871, Charles A. Welch is a son of W. A. and Alice (Walner) Welch. His father, a native of Alabama, settled in Indian Ter- ritory before the Civil war, and is said to have been one of the two first white men to make permanent settlement in the territory. During the war he served as a captain in the Confederate army, and then returned and settled at Rock Springs and engaged in merchandising. Still later his business was removed to Caddo, where he lived for a number of years. He was also engaged in business at Brazil and Talihina in the Choctaw Nation west of Fort Smith. W. A. Welch was a well educated man, a lawyer as well as a merchant, and practiced in the United States courts of old Indian Territory. Early in the '70s he took a conspicuous part in Chickasaw political affairs, holding several offices before intermarried citizens were forbidden to hold office. Alice (Walner) Welch was a daughter of Dr. William Walner, who was a surgeon in the Confederate army. Mrs. Welch was of part Indian blood. Doctor Walner was one of the pioneer settlers at a stage station on the Washita River in the Chickasaw Nation known as Cherokec Town, and there for a num- ber of years lived his son John Walner, a prominent Chickasaw citizen of early days. Besides the county at- torney of Pushmataha County, other children of W. A. and Alice Welch are: J. H. Welch, a merchant at Al- bion; Mrs. T. C. Branham, wife of a physician at Pauls Valley; and Mrs. Walter Davis, wife of a merchant at Sulphur.

The first school attended by Charles A. Welch was at Caddo. It was taught by a Mr. Chapin. One of his schoolmates was Thomas Hunter of Hugo. On leaving school Mr. Welch became a clerk in his father's store at Brazil and later at Talihina, and by business activity he supported himself and family for a number of years. In the meantime he took up the study of law, and in 1901 was admitted to the bar.

At Talihina in 1890 Mr. Welch married Miss Delia Morton. Her father was one of the earliest settlers in the vicinity of Talihina and for many years was a teacher in tribal schools. To their marriage have been born five children: S. E. Welch, a graduate of the class of 1910 in the Law Department of the University of Oklahoma and now his father's law partner; Fitzhugh Lee, Daniel M., Mabel and Ruth. Mr. Welch is an active member of the County and State Bar associations. In Masonry he is affiliated with the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Antlers, the Commandery at Hugo and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Muskogee. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. His church is the Presbyterian.

REV. A. HUBERT VAN RECHEN. The honored pastor of St. Anthony's Church in the City of Okmulgee has achieved a large and benignant work during the period of his activities as a priest of the Catholic Church in Oklahoma, his initial services having been in the old

Indian · Territory, as a missionary, and he is one of the distinguished and influential members of the Catholic clergy in the vigorous young commonwealth in which he has found a fruitful field for his zealous and consecrated activities in his noble calling. In the community slight use of his family name is indulged, as he is familiarly and affectionately known as Father Hubert. He has identified himself most fully with the spirit of American institutions and customs but to him consistently remains deep and abiding love for his native land, which now lies prostrate and devastated by the ravages of the great European war that has brought death and desolation of unprecedented horror.

Father Hubert was born at Cruyshantem, a village in East Flanders, Belgium, about seven miles southwest of the ancient City of Ghent, and the date of his nativity was February 25, 1879. As may naturally be inferred, he is a man of high scholarship, but aside from this it is worthy of note that through early associations he gained a thorough knowledge of both the Flemish and French languages, besides which he has perfected him- self in the English language. He is a son of Henry and Renilde Elizabeth (deWolf) Van Rechen, the former of whom passed to the life eternal on the 4th of August, 1911, and the latter of whom still retains her home at Cruyshantem. Of the family of four sons and three daughters the subject of this review is the only one who has established a home in America.

Henry Van Rechen was born in East Flanders on the 4th of July, 1845, a scion of one of the old and patrician families of that section of Belgium, and he received the best of educational advantages in his youth. He at- tended the College of St. Nicholas, in his native country, and thereafter continued his studies for some time in the City of Rome, Italy. He answered the call of Pope Pius IX and served gallantly during the conflict between church and state in Italy. Thereafter he was long an influential figure in connection with public affairs in East Flanders, and, as a remarkable accomplished musi- cian, he served forty-two years as organist of the Catholic Church at Cruyshantem, he having been a most devout communicant of the Catholic Church, as is also his vener- able widow. Henry Van Rechen was awarded the title of chevalier of the Order of St. Sylvester and received the medal of bene merenti, besides other honorable decora- tions, a number of his medals and other evidences of distinction being now in the possession of Father Hubert of this review.

In the parochial schools of his native village Father Hubert acquired his preliminary education, and he was signally favored in having been reared in a home of distinctive culture and ideal associations. Thereafter he continued his studies in turn in St. Mary's College, at Audenaerde, and in the Catholic university, in the City of Louvain, this having been the largest and most important of the many great Catholic educational institutions which so long gave Belgium precedence in the domain of higher education. Father Hubert completed his philosophical courses at St. Nicholas, and his theological at Louvain and there he learned also the English language, in the American College of Louvain, in which he was graduated, as was he also in the great university. On the 13th of July, 1902, he was ordained to the priesthood of the Catholic Church, his reception of the sacerdotal orders having been at the hands of Bishop Maes of Covington, Kentucky, in Louvain. In the following September he came to the United States, and soon after his arrival in New York City he was appointed Indian missionary at Antlers, Indian Territory, the present judicial center of Pushmataha County, Oklahoma. There he continued his earnest and effective services until the following year,

1780

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

aud in the meanwhile a goodly uumber of the missionary Indians were received as communicauts of the church. For a time Father Hubert was pastor at Wilburton, the present county seat of Latimer County, and later he was assigned to Poteau, where he effected the erection of a church building. On July 1, 1903, he returned to the pastoral charge at Antlers, where likewise his energy and consecrated zeal found tangible fruitage in the erection of a church edifice, the while he was able also to inspire the devotion which made possible also the erec- tion of churches at Bentley, Atoka County; Boswell, Choctaw County; and Hugo, Choctaw County.

In June, 1910, Father Hubert became the first resi- dent priest of the parish of St. Anthony's Church at Okmulgee, where he has since continued his earnest and devoted labors and where he has succeeded in infusing vitality into both the spiritual and temporal activities of the important parish. With the appreciative and able assistance of Judge Wade, Stanfield District judge, he has erected and properly equipped a rectory, which they douated to the congregation of St. Anthony's Church, the parish having specific incorporation under the laws of the State of Oklahoma since October 21, 1914. The local rectory is conceded to be one of the best iu the state. The church edifice has been enlarged and other- wise improved under the administration of Father Hu- bert, and he is now (1916) bending his energies to accomplishing the erection of a building for the parish school. The parish is one of the most important and vigorous in Oklahoma and its loved pastor not only has the devoted esteem and co-operations of the members of his flock but also the highi regard of the entire com- munity, as he is essentially broad-minded, loyal and progressive in his civic attitude and does all in his power to further the best interests of the community in general. Incidentally it may be noted that he has been specially active in the support and advancement of the Oklahoma National Guard, in which he maintains a deep interest.

ROY M. FELTON. Caddo County, Oklahoma, figures as one of the most attractive, progressive and prosperous divisions of the state, justly claiming a high order of citizenship and a spirit of enterprise which is certain to conserve cousecutive development and marked advance- ment in the material upbuilding of this section. The county has been and is signally favored in the class of men who have contributed to its development along financial and agricultural lines, and in the former con- nection the subject of this review demands recognition as he has beeu actively engaged in banking operatious at Hydro during the greater part of his career thus far. Mr. Felton is cashier of the First National Bank of Hydro, aud he has served the city in several positious of trust, namely, as city clerk and member of school board.

Almond D. Felton, grandfather of Roy M. Felton, was born in New York, in 1819, and he died at Ellenburg, New York, in 1899. He conducted an iron foundry in the Adirondack Mountains in his younger days and for sixteen years was justice of the peace in Clinton County, New York. He was descended from English stock, his ancestors having settled at Felton's Hill, Massachusetts, in 1627. His sou, Marshall A. Felton, was born in Clinton County, New York, in 1849. He came West in 1874 and located in Kansas, where he helped build the canal, and for many years he did freighting from Arkan- sas City to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was at Hennessey, Oklahoma, only a few hours after the murder of Patrick Hennessey by the Indians. Later in life he became a farmer and he died at Ellenburg, New York, in 1898, while on a visit home. He served in the Civil war

for oue year as a member of the Ninety-second New York Volunteers. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was an active office holder, belonged to the Masonic fraternity, and also affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a repub- lican in his political allegiance. He married Belle Nichols, born in Illinois, in 1858, and now a resident of Hydro. This union was prolific of the following children: Roy M. is the subject of this sketch; Ralph A. is a resident of Roselle, New Jersey, where he is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions; O. C. is a rancher in the vicinity of Filer, Idaho; Mary C. is the wife of L. L. Williams, a merchant at Orange, California; and Esther, who was graduated in the Hydro High School in 1915, is now a teacher in Idaho. For her second husband Mrs. Felton married M. M. Klein, a furniture dealer and undertaker at Hydro. They have one child: Margaret, born in October, 1904, and now a pupil in the public schools of Hydro.

Roy M. Felton was born in Arkansas City, Kansas, January 11, 1880. He was graduated in the graded schools of Cowley. Couuty, Kansas, and attended the high school at Ponca City, Oklahoma, whither his parents had removed in 1893. He was graduated in Southwestern College,. at Winfield, Kansas, in 1902, and then engaged in farming in the vicinity of Hydro for the ensuing two years. He entered the Hydro State Bank in 1904 as assistant cashier and in 1906 was raised to the positiou of cashier. The Hydro State Bank was established in January, 1902, and was nationalized as the First National Bank of Hydro in 1911. The first bank building was erected in 1904 and it was destroyed by fire in 1910. The present structure was built in the same year and is a fine brick building on Main Street. The officers of the bank arc: George B. Pope, mentioned elsewhere in this work, president; W. H. Collins, vice president; Roy M. Feltou, cashier; and H. Larson, assistant cashier. The bank has a capital stock of $25,000, a surplus of $3,500 and profits of $2,500.

Mr. Felton's work as bauk cashier has been most satisfactory and he is well known as a booster of his home town. He is a republican in politics and has given efficient service as city clerk of Hydro for three terms, and in that capacity brought about many material improvements of great benefit to this community. He is a trustee in the Methodist Episcopal Church and his fraternal affiliations are as follows: Hydro Lodge No. 230, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is junior warden; Hydro Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star; and he is an ex-member of the Knights of Pythias.

At Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1904, was solemnizcd the marriage of Mr. Felton to Miss Grace Rose, a daughter of the Rev. W. H. Rose, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Guthrie. Mr. and Mrs. Felton have two children: Marshall Rose, born August 6, 1905, and William Roy, born October 27, 1907, both of whom are attending school at Hydro.

ROBERT B. THOMAS. The present postmaster at Cache is one of the early settlers in that section of Comanche County, having come soon after the opening of this region to settlement, and has been variously identified with the growth and business activities of the locality.

Mr. Thomas comes from an old and prominent Southern family. The Thomases originally emigrated out of Wales to Virginia, where they lived when Virginia was still a colony, and afterwards became identified with pioneer settlement of Kentucky. Mr. Thomas had two great- grandfathers who were in the Revolutionary war, his great-grandfather Thomas having held the rank of colonel, and on his mother's side his great-grandfather, Colonel

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Woolfork, attained a similar rank in the American forces, fighting for independence. The grandfather, William Thomas, a native of Virginia, went to Kentucky at an early date, and was killed while living in Ballard County, . when his horse fell on him.

Robert B. Thomas was born in Bardwell, Kentucky, January 1, 1881. His father, Dr. George A. Thomas, was born in Ballard County, Kentucky, February 3, 1844, and early in his career became identified with the Southern armies in the war between the states. For one year he was a member of Polk's Scouts, and for the following three years was in the cavalry under General Forrest. After the war he graduated Doctor of Medi- cine from the Louisville Medical College, removed to Bardwell in 1871, and was prominent as a physician and also in politics and civic affairs in that locality until his death in 1907. Doctor Thomas married Miss Hannah J. Webb, who was born in Bardwell, Kentucky, January 2, 1856, and is now living at Cache, Oklahoma. Their chil- dren are: Herbert, who is in the insurance business at Tyronza, Arkansas; Wallace W., in the ice business at Cache, Oklahoma; Ada, wife of Louis Harrison, a farmer at Bardwell, Kentucky; Robert B .; Bettie, wife of S. B. Ray, a farmer at Cache, Oklahoma; Charles, a rail- way employe living at Muskogee, Oklahoma; and Luther, an electrician at Cushing, Oklahoma.

As a boy Robert B. Thomas grew up at Bardwell and attended the public schools, graduating from high school in 1900. At the age of twenty-one he came out to South- western Oklahoma, and found his permanent location at Cache, where for two years he was a clerk in the Indian trading store for E. M. Harris. In 1904 he became connected with the mercantile enterprise of V. E. Gregg, and also for Mr. Gregg's successor, A. J. Lawrence, and remained in the general store at Cache until June, 1908. The following twelve months were spent at Brown- ing, Missouri, where he was again in the employ of Mr. V. E. Gregg. Returning to Cache in the fall of 1909, lie engaged in the general mercantile business for him- self until February 12, 1913. Next followed an ex- perience as a traveling salesman representing the Star Clothing Company of Kentucky. This was terminated on September 5, 1914, at which date he received his appointment as postmaster of Cache under the civil service rules. He is now giving practically all his atten- tion to the administration of the office.

Mr. Thomas has been active in local affairs in that part of Comanche County for a number of years. For four years he was township clerk at Cache, and in 1914 was defeated by only a small majority as candidate for the office of county assessor. He is a democrat, and is well known as a party leader in Comanche County, and for six years was democratic township committeeman. He is a fluent public speaker, and was one of the first men of Comanche County to support President Wilson on the stump. His church is the Christian.

Mr. Thomas is especially well known in Odd Fellow- ship and is now serving as president of the Southwest Odd Fellows Association, an organization for general benefit among the Odd Fellows lodges in Comanche, Cot- ton, Tillman and Jackson counties. His local affiliation is with Cache Lodge No. 269, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and at three different times he has attended the grand lodge of the state and the first time was present as a delegate when only twenty-one years of age, being the youngest delegate in the grand lodge. He is a past grand and past grand representative, and a member of the Odd Fellows Encampment.

On June 21, 1914, at El Reno, Oklahoma, Mr. Thomas married Miss Mittie Fronaberger of Lawton, Oklahoma.

JOHN P. MILLER, M. D. Many of the older common- wealths of the Union have contributed to the personnel of the able and representative physicians and surgeons of Oklahoma, and though Doctor Miller claims the historic old State of North Carolina as the place of his nativity he was reared to manhood in Texas, where he received his early education and whence he came to Oklahoma Territory in September, 1892, when he settled at Cheyenne, the present vital metropolis and judicial center of Roger Mills County, where he has been estab- lished in the successful practice of his profession during the intervening period of nearly a quarter of a century, and where he holds secure prestige and popularity as one of the leading pioneer physicians and surgeons of this section of the state, even as he has made his influ- ence definitely felt through his activities as a progressive and public-spirited citizen.

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Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941 Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society Number of Pages: 644

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 644